Comments on: Boris announces above inflation fare increase

By: anonymous

anonymous — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:16:25 +0000

People make a big deal out of wrong decisions in politics but you know its now January and I haven’t herd much on this on the main stream news.
Do people want to pay such a ridiculous price for transport and in return be left out of pocket with a dysfunctional public transport service.
I mean if you have the salary that can afford these fares then good on you, but I really don’t understand it for the rest of Londoners. Rent is high, Council Tax don’t get me started, Food bills are still high, gas, electricity and now transport. Oh and wait the economy is in tatters. Instead of putting down VAT and coming out with stupid ideas, why not actually help people instead of making us suffer for stupid politics.
Credit crunch or not, many were already suffering before the economic downturn and now many more will join in that suffering.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:01:49 +0000

Where is the money from the congestion charge going?? We live in the zone and use the car and public transport. The mayor needs to develop a strategy of absolute transparency when it comes to subsidy of public transport with congestion charging. We must see 100% of the profit going to making public transport affordable and reliable or the car will continue to rule!

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:40:04 +0000

I’m surprised you are all so surprised. A populist was voted in ousting a realist, and the result is that you get populist, unrealistic policies. What do you expect. Not voting is hardly an answer, but not voting a populist into power might well be.

By: Angela

Angela — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:57:35 +0000

Have I read this right?

Boris cancels a scheme which could have raised £50m, gives away another £15m on top of paying out half a million to settle a court case and then blames someone else for the lack of funds as he mugs public transport users?

Be afraid, be very afraid…

By: TawkinSenz

TawkinSenz — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:14:55 +0000

Stu,
I couldn’t agree more about the heaters. My favourite annoyance in summer, I’ve caught a packed 493 in 30 degree heat and the heaters were blasting. The drivers claim they are ’set on at the garage and they cannot switch them off’.
I think the biggest problem is that very few of the ‘fat controllers’ actually us public transport. How can you manage something when you never use it!
I don’t want to sound like a Ken supporter, but at least he caught the Jubilee line every morning.

By: Ricardo Filipe

Ricardo Filipe — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:49:24 +0000

he scraps the £25 gas guzzler congestion charge and then increases public transport prices.

i voted for boris and i am very disapointed.

typical conservitive my dad says,i disagree typical politician more like.

the next time i wont be voting politicians are all the same.

the political system has lost yet another young voter.

dont have faith in politics u will find the faith misplaced.

this is something that will never happen, a politician that tells you the negatives as well as the positives for the good of the country and not his party or himself.

at least red ken had the right idea even if he was going the wrong way about it.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:19:24 +0000

Given the well known fact that staff costs are a huge amount of the cost of running a transport system, he’d be better off scrapping his labour intensive bendy bus abolition and Routemaster plans, really.

By: Stu

Stu — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:01:56 +0000

Here’s an idea Boris – turn the heating off on London’s buses. Let’s face it, when it’s cold outside we are dressed accordingly. We don’t need our buses heated when we’re already wearing coats, scarves, gloves, etc., particularly as buses are so often crowded and offer so very little ventilation.

However, this what really frustrates. Throughout the summer even when it was as warm as 27-28º, the heating on the buses was still turned on! I made a point of checking this and I think only one journey (of my regular commute) throughout the entire summer was the heating not switched on.

Common sense should surely prevail here. Let’s disable the heating function (OK, the driver might need some heating, granted) on the upper deck at least, thereby saving valuable energy/fuel and money.

By: Sean Kirwin

Sean Kirwin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

can we expect more price hikes to pay for scrapping the western congestion charge zone?

By: TawkinSenz

TawkinSenz — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have been waiting for this one ever since Boris got elected.
Lesson 1 of Public funds management – always secure your replacement income before you start making concessions. If you noticed throughout the Livingstone era this was clearly the policy. It may seem a little devious, but it softens the blow if you make sure good news follows bad. This is another Boris Johnson PR disaster.

The public will be incensed that the majority of public transport users are now effectively having to subsidise the decision not to charge the most polluting vehicles in London. It may only seem like a small amount, but it’s on top of many others. Unlike Ken’s fare hikes, this is to fill a gap and not actuall to raise money for later improvements.
Boris is clearly a knee jerk reaction politician and it’s now showing. His pandering to perceived public sentiment has been costly and now he has to face up to it. Sure you can get thousands of people to sign a petition to bring back routemasters (even me) – but if you said “but fares will have to rise as a result” – many would change their minds quite rapidly (including me).
Ken was a master at this – sometimes you have to make decisions that are unpopular (and my god he was unpopular sometimes), but in the same way a father has to be unpopular to his children when he knows it’s in their best interests.
I shall be very interested to see how this one plays out.
…and as for that black hole – does anyone really believe Ken was fighting hard at the election knowing there was a £110 million pound black hole waiting for him? I think not Boris – we’re obviously not as much as a pushover as your blindly biased Henley electorate were.